Category: Journalism

Jesus Diaz of Gizmodo:

74 days after the iPhone was introduced at $600 a pop (six hundred dollars), one million were sold. The Droid, at $200: 1.05 million. The Nexus One? An estimated 135,000 units. By any measure, that’s a total sales flop.

That sure does suck. I think several forces are at play: T-Mobile being the initial carrier, the support issues that plagued the device its first few weeks on the market and the lack of retail presence. (Apple is one of the only companies that can sell thousands of devices without anyone seeing it first. The iPad is the most recent example, but the first iPhone was only available for people to look at and touch when it went on sale in 2007.)

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Macworld:

Unfortunately, the AP left some of the stylebook out of this mobile edition: some entries are less complete than those found in the paper version, and at least one refers to the stylebook’s Briefing on Media Law, which is not included here. Some entries with tables or graphics didn’t translate well, and URLs are not hyperlinked.

It’s not a full replacement for the printed version, but for quick things, I find myself opening it before I hunt down my Stylebook.

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Gruber:

So on the one hand we have the simple theory that AT&T’s network stinks, especially in large metro areas, and extra-especially in New York City and San Francisco.

On the other hand, we have the theory that AT&T’s network is just fine because two network consulting companies say so, even though a Consumer Reports customer survey says otherwise, and it is the iPhone that is flawed, but the flaws are for some reason worse on AT&T than other carriers around the world, and just happen to be worse still in some cities than others, and Apple has been unwilling and/or unable to address these flaws in three model years.

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NPR:

Comcast, the nation’s largest cable provider, is buying a controlling stake in NBC Universal which has broadcast and cable networks and a movie studio. The deal would make Comcast one of the nation’s most powerful players in news and entertainment.

The possible ramifications of this are scary. What if Comcast decides to charge other cable companies more to carry NBC? What if they only allow NBC programming to be streamed online to their own Internet customers? This is a step backwards.

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Reuters:

“With dwindling revenue and diminished resources, frustrated newspaper executives are looking for someone to blame,” he [Google CEO Eric Schmidt] wrote in the article published on Thursday.

“Much of their anger is currently directed at Google, whom many executives view as getting all the benefit from the business relationship without giving much in return,” he said. “The facts, I believe, suggest otherwise.”

Revenue from ads that appear alongside news articles on Google’s search engine represent a “tiny fraction” of the company’s overall revenue, Schmidt said.

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Here’s a look at what Time, Inc. has been working on:

This type of device is exactly what print journalism needs to stay relevant. In a world of always-on communication, the printed word is out of date before the ink dries.

If Apple’s tablet is true, I expect this type of content to be at the heart of it.

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Computerworld:

Google said Tuesday it is changing how it grants access to news stories through its search engine to give publishers more control over how much content people can see for free.

The move by Google marks a step toward placating the publishing industry, which has raised concerns that the popular search engine has undermined its revenues.

The changes will be made to Google’s “First Click Free” program, which allowed users free access to content through Google News that a publisher would normally charge for.

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Engadget has posted their new rules about crazy product names:

1. Product and company names that are regular English words shall be treated like proper English nouns, complete with proper capitalization. Example: DROID becomes Droid and nook becomes Nook.

2. Product and company names that are not regular English words shall be capitalized first as proper nouns, and then as the company treats them. Example: RAZR stays RAZR, but chumby would become Chumby.

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I mean, really guys? Really?

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The Financial Times:

Microsoft has had discussions with News Corp over a plan that would involve the media company being paid to “de-index” its news websites from Google, setting the scene for a search engine battle that could offer a ray of light to the newspaper industry.

The impetus for the discussions came from News Corp, owner of newspapers ranging from the Wall Street Journal of the US to The Sun of the UK, said a person familiar with the situation, who warned that talks were at an early stage.

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This video is from Jon Stewart’s interview with Lou Dobbs, former CNN anchor. Go watch it, and then come back.

I’ll wait.

Done? Good. Welcome back…

The part that kills me about Dobbs is his inability — or unwillingness — to remove his opinion from the journalism he is supposed to be conducting. He calls infusing news with his opinion “advocacy journalism.” All programs like his are just editorial content disguised as news. It’s disgusting.

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Wired’s Evan Ratliff:

It’s one thing to report on the phenomenon of people disappearing. But to really understand it, I figured that I had to try it myself. So I decided to vanish. I would leave behind my loved ones, my home, and my name. I wasn’t going off the grid, dropping out to live in a cabin. Rather, I would actually try to drop my life and pick up another.

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